The Sound of Silence
by redeemthefallen
Summary: When Karkat Vantas, a very grumpy teenager, is forced to spend the summer at the beach with his overbearing, but well meaning, older brother, he's positive that he'll lose his mind. That is, until he meets a peculiar boy after an evening of angst and humidity. Could this stranger turn this vacation around, or will he serve to make Karkat more miserable than ever?
1. Chapter 1

The air was still; hot and heavy, it stifled his lungs as he peered over the railing at the drop below him. This vacation had been a disaster. No, his entire life had been a disaster. He took a tentative step up onto the base of the rail, rocking back and forth as he wished for something, a breeze, a gale, a storm, anything that would bring a change to the humidity that had seemed to follow him the past three days. Karkat sucked in a gasp of a breath as his foot slipped, falling the short distance before the railing caught him by the gut. Groaning, he shoved himself away from the metal, storming down the stairs slick from children's wet feet as the sun sank farther into the endless ocean. His raging didn't end as he crossed the brick paved patio and hurdled himself unceremoniously over the barrier separating him from the sand.

Strangely enough, the beach was devoid of life. Every evening he'd checked, the shore had been littered with obnoxious tourists trying to snap pictures of the sun before the sea swallowed it entirely. The angry teen observed this newfound silence with pleasant surprise, as this was one of the only times he could safely venture into the rays of the unforgiving Florida sun. One would think that his father would have chosen a different location for their summer "getaway", having full knowledge of his son's condition, or would have at least left him at home where he was halfway happy with the very small group of friends he had.

Of course, Karkat was only kidding himself when he referred to this summer long trip as a "vacation." In reality, it was an annual practice for the family. His father, a corporation lawyer, was sent every summer to a different conference zone to represent his company in a series of week long sessions, all expenses paid. However, this invitation extended only as far as the man. The boy and his older brother were dumped for the summer at some second rate hotel, only seeing their father for dinner or lunch on the weekends. He didn't care about that part, however. In fact, he couldn't care less about the fact that his father was too busy for him. It was the small matter of his overbearing, well meaning brother that drove Karkat absolutely insane.

Shaking his head in frustration, Karkat kicked his shoes off by the wall before continuing his tirade as he made a beeline toward the waves. When his toes reached the wet sand, he clumsily lowered himself to sit, not caring about the sand that he'd be sure to find in his pants later. He tried not to fume too much, the anger only adding to the suffocating heat already pressing down on him as he found himself praying to a benevolent God for rain for the fourth time that day. Pulling his knees to his chest to rest his chin on them, Karkat was surprised to feel the sting of tears in his eyes. He quickly scrubbed them away, feeling trapped by his own confusion as to why he was so upset.

Having been too absorbed in his pity party, he completely missed the sound of crunching sand behind him. He remained oblivious until a thin figure dropped gracefully to sit beside him, causing the small teen to jump about a foot in the air.

"Yo, you okay, bro?" And suddenly he was confused. Because, who was this boy, and why was he talking to him? Karkat turned his head to face him, narrowed eyes meeting a pair of reflective aviators, and was quickly reminded of why he avoided most people as his reflection stared back at him. Alabaster hair, pale lips, dull, pasty white complexion topped with snowy eyebrows and eyelashes. Ghostly. Well, other than the deep crimson of his eyes, ringed with dark circles that could only mean it had been far too long since he'd woken up on the right side of the bed. Karkat couldn't help but hate what he saw staring back at him. The cause of ruthless teasing throughout his school days, the boy loathed every aspect of his appearance. "Hello? Anybody alive in there?" The new boy prompted, snapping him out of his confused, self-loathing stupor.

"M'fine." Karkat snapped back, suddenly too self conscious to be seen in public. "Leave me alone." His grumpy tone was met with a snort from the boy Karkat had not even bothered to glance at.

"Where's the fire? I only just got here." If Karkat had been anyone else, he might have confused this stranger's taunting for flirting. Seeing as that was not the case, he gave a frustrated grunt before rolling his eyes. The albino glanced at his reflection once more, just to make sure he hadn't magically transformed into something he knew he wasn't, before going to push himself up off the ground. He was stopped as a surprisingly strong hand grabbed his wrist, simultaneously feeling immediate embarrassment at the sheen of sweat he knew this stranger was bound to notice. _'Whatever'_ the crabby boy thought, scowling _'It's not my fault it's this damn hot._ ' And it was true. If the humidity had been suffocating before, it was killer now.

"Wait, I didn't mean to scare you off." The new boy spoke in a rush, his jerky facade cracking. "Don't go." Karkat curled his nose in distaste at this development, gritting his teeth as tried to tug his arm free. He didn't have time for this. His friends at home hadn't returned any of his FaceTime calls, nor did they respond to his open post on Tumblr about how badly vacation had sucked, and now _this_ annoying jerk had come out of nowhere and tried to insert himself into the one moment of peace Karkat had been striving to achieve. It was enough to make him livid. He yanked his wrist back, using a quick motion he'd learned in his self defense class.

"Leave me alone. No one wants to hang out with a _freak_ anyway." He spit out the old taunt he'd heard all his life for good measure, trying to ensure with his openly bitter attitude that this guy would just leave him be. Turning to stomp back up the shore, he was surprised to notice that this loser was _following him._ This hadn't happened to the angry teen since freshman year, but it still freaked him out beyond belief. He whipped around, holding his hands up to ward him off, a bit startled to see that the boy had done the same in response. The waves crashed, filling the awkward silence that had fallen between the two, the air becoming thick and muggy the longer Karkat stood out there. It seemed his desperate plea for rain would go unanswered.

"Relax." The stranger started calmly, breaking the tension that had fallen between the two. "Who are you calling a freak anyway? Try looking in the mirror sometime." He grumbled, actually looking a bit hurt. Karkat was completely confused, wrinkling his nose as he tried to piece together what he was talking about. Giving up, he took a much more blunt approach.

"What the heck are you talking about?" He asked gruffly, looking himself up and down. "I know I'm a freak. That's what _just_ I said." Now it was the stranger's turn to look confused, pushing the bridge of his aviators up until they rested on the top of his head.

Karkat sucked in a breath at the sight that met him. Crimson eyes bored into ruby, and it was only then that he allowed himself to look at the other signs that he'd been too busy to notice. Snowy bangs fell neatly over an equally pale forehead. Bangs that Karkat knew from experience could pass for blond when wet. In fact, their complexions would have been identical, were it not for the obvious fact that this stranger definitely got more sleep than he did. He found himself speechless, staring at the stranger for an embarrassingly long moment. His gaze must have still looked irritated, however, because the new boy shifted before holding out a hand.

"I'm sorry. I'm usually a lot cooler than this. I just saw...I saw you when you were passing the front desk a while ago." Karkat raised an eyebrow as the boy in front of him began tripping on his words, ignoring the hand and putting his own on his hips.

"And?" He asked bluntly, a bit rude about it.

"And I've just never seen anyone like me." He finished, pressing his lips together as if he regretted coming over to begin with. Karkat said nothing, passing him to sit back down on the sand. After a long stretch of silence, he glanced back at the stranger.

"You just going to stand there like an idiot, or are you going to come sit down?" He asked sharply, the only way he knew how. He was secretly pleased, however, when the stranger came to sit next to him. "I'm Karkat." He said after a moment, wiping the sweat from his hands before leaning back on them and staring out over the sea to admire the moon already hanging high in the sky. It would have been a beautiful view if the beach weren't so desperately in need of rain, but how had it gotten to be so late already?

"Dave." The stranger answered back. "Nice to make your acquaintance."

And then it started to pour.


	2. Chapter 2

Swearing like a sailor, Karkat was slowly becoming more and more convinced that the rain was a curse rather than an answer to his prayers. If it hadn't been for the sudden downpour, the distrusting albino would never have let Dave hurriedly usher him back to the hotel. He would have questioned what this stranger thought he was doing before he ever let him take a strong hold of his wrist and drag him to his room on the first floor, and he _definitely_ wouldn't have shouted abuse at the tv screen opposite him as Dave kicked his butt for the _fourth_ time at Mortal Kombat. Honestly, losing a game he hadn't played since the fourth grade to a jerk he'd just met made Karkat's blood boil. However, none of that was as bad as what came after the grumpy albino had said his goodbyes and made his way back to his room on the third floor.

The lights of the hotel room were off, a good sign for the teen as he unlocked the door and crept in. The mustard yellow paint on the wall was just as gross in the moonlight as it was under the glare of the light bulbs found in the lamps scattered throughout the room, and his bed remained unmade from where he had kicked off his blankets after a fight with his brother and stormed out of the room. It was quiet, the faint sounds of the TV in Kankri's room reaching his ears. It seemed he was in the clear. That was, until he'd accidentally shut the door too loudly.

" _Karkat Vantas!_ " The teen groaned under his breath, wondering if he had enough time to split before the door in the back of the room opened, revealing a fuming college Sophomore. Ebony hair neat and eyes wide with fury, Karkat noticed for the thousandth time that Kankri looked _nothing_ like him. If Karkat was ivory, Kankri was chesnut. His brother, taking after their father, could make someone feel warmer by just looking at him. Dark hair, warm brown skin, inviting hazel eyes, Karkat's relatives practically screamed innocence. He'd always thought of it as God's practical joke that he himself looked like something out of a nightmare. When they were younger and Kankri was crueler, he'd joke that their father never needed to spend money on a costume for Karkat when Halloween came about.

But then Kankri had hit high school, discovering Tumblr and it's plethora of social justice warriors. Suddenly, Karkat's "mutation" was nothing more than a "slight aberration", and the source of years of bullying from his brother had become Kankri's platform in his fight for social equality overnight. "Trigger" words that had always been a part of Kankri's daily vocabulary had been banned from their home, and his psychoanalysis of Karkat had become the majority of the posts made on his own blog. Being around Kankri for an extended amount of time was usually a task in itself, but summer vacation always equaled trying times for the albino.

"Well?" Karkat snapped out of his thoughts as he caught the question, frowning at his brother before answering grumpily.

"Well what?" He wanted to beat the annoyed look straight off Kankri's face. It wasn't fair. Karkat should be annoyed with _him_ , after all, he was the one being interrogated.

"Where have you been the past five hours?" Kankri snapped back, scowling at his brother. Oh, _now_ Kankri was concerned about him? That was rich. If Karkat recalled, the last thing his brother had yelled at him on his way out was to "not even think about coming back".

"None of your business." Karkat shot back, pushing past him to gather his clothes to take a shower. He thought for a brief moment about packing up his things and running for Dave's with his tail between his legs. The albino pushed the idea off before he even truly considered it, calling it crazy as he reminded himself that Dave was a complete stranger. For all Karkat knew, the other boy wandered up and down the beach every twilight, finding strays to take back to his hotel room. For all Karkat knew, there was a stack of bodies in the bathroom. A shudder flew down his spine at the thought. He really needed to stop binge watching Criminal Minds.

"You're not going to talk to me like that, Karkat. I'm the adult on this trip when dad's gone. I'll tell him you're hiding things from me. You really need to learn to start respecting me, I am your older brother, and dad put _me_ in charge of _you_ , not the other way around. And another thing-"

"Kankri, _shut up._ " He snapped, having tried unsuccessfully to ignore his ranting. "If you don't leave me alone, I'll tell dad that you're bullying me again. Go back to watching _Days of Our Lives_ or whatever mind numbing melodrama you're into these days." The albino hated having to respond to his brother in this way, but being firm was the only way to go with Kankri. Snatching up his pajamas and heading to the bathroom, Karkat took a quick shower before brushing his teeth, shutting off the lights, and crawling into bed.

He opened his laptop to check for any missed Skype calls, or messages in his inbox, both of which were nonexistent. The teen let out a disappointed sigh, passing the tears of loneliness rolling down his cheeks off as water drops from his wet bangs. It wouldn't be so bad if any of them had bothered to shoot him a text now and then. Honestly, Karkat had been gone for almost a month. Didn't _any_ of his friends miss him? He shrugged the overwhelming feeling away as he usually did, popping 13 Going on 30 into the disk drive of his laptop before lowering the volume and letting it play. He didn't know if it was the sound of the storms, or the influx of emotions he'd experienced that day, but Karkat was sound asleep halfway through the movie.

After he woke, Karkat spent the majority of the day up in the room, avoiding the awkwardness that was sure to come with seeing Kankri after the tiff they'd had the night before. However, as evening rolled around, his interest was piqued at the thought of the shore and the boy he'd met there. It took him almost half an hour to convince himself that it wasn't a stupid idea before the albino even put on his shoes, taking an additional twenty minutes to coax himself into actually going. Karkat headed down the stairs, stopping at the wall separating the patio from the sand and squinting in irritation as he noticed just how many people were out there. Ugh, Perfect. He shrugged his misgivings off, leaving his shoes on the patio before venturing out and plopping himself down in the same spot he had the day before, waiting there for Dave.

Ten, twenty, thirty minutes passed, the albino shrugging it off. He'd gone out a bit earlier today than he had yesterday. He was sure that was it. He took to watching a family as they walked down the beach. There was a girl around his age pestering her older sister and tormenting her younger brother as he kept trying to catch up to her. One, one and a half, two hours...still no Dave. Most of the tourists had gone in, the best part of the sunset over. The moon was high in the sky by the time Karkat finally gave up. Dave never showed that night. Or the next, Or the next. Or the next. Kankri hadn't spoken to him since their stupid fight, and Karkat was far too stubborn to make the first move. To be honest, Karkat was miserable, and he hated the stranger he'd met on the beach for filling him with the hope that he'd no longer be lonely. To make matter's worse, it was Saturday- the one day his father had off, which roughly translated to a super awkward dinner out where his father would interrupt no less than ten times with calls from the center about that week's coming session.

Three hours later, Karkat was trudging up the stairs, having chosen to be dropped off at the hotel after dinner rather than go out for ice cream with his family. With the sadness that had been plaguing him, the albino preferred to be alone. When he reached the second floor, the teen thought he caught sight of a familiar form leaving a room that was definitely not his, a large black trash bag in his hand.

"Dave?" He called tentatively, frowning as he peered down the dimly lit hall. Raising his voice as the mysterious figure kept walking, he called again, "Dave!" Were...were they walking _faster_? Karkat broke into a run after him, chest filling with anger due to being abandoned, accidentally tackling the figure as he tripped over his own feet.

"Ow!" The boy cried, a set of reflective aviators skidding across the floors. Karkat quickly crawled off, scooting back as Dave brushed himself off. "What was that for?" He grumbled, scooping up things that had fallen out of his bag and putting them back in

"Why have you been avoid-" the question froze in Karkat's mouth as he noticed the trash that had fallen out of the bag, his eyes snapping up to look at the other albino. "Do you work here?" He asked impulsively, not missing the embarrassed look that spread across Dave's face.

"Not exactly."


	3. Chapter 3

After his acquaintance's inconvenient disappearance, Karkat never once thought he'd be back in Dave's room. However, sitting cross legged on the full size bed with a box of pepperoni pizza between them, he could picture it quite clearly.

Once Karkat had followed Dave to the dumpster, the other boy had to relent, reluctantly pulling him back to his room. They had waited on the bed for the pizza to arrive for ten minutes of very uncomfortable silence before Karkat finally spoke.

"So. You dropped off the face of the earth like a complete jerk. Where have you been?" He asked bluntly, not one to tiptoe around what was bothering him. He was pleased to see that the question made Dave uncomfortable, the taller boy grimacing before he shifted on mattress. The more Karkat examined him, however, the worse he felt. He thought he saw something dark under his shades, the plastic protecting them from his scrutinizing glare. The boy frowned as Dave remained silent, seeming as if he were looking for an appropriate response without giving too much away. Karkat's eyes narrowed as his lips pulled down into a frown, his hand reaching out with the speed of a Black Mamba as he snatched the glasses from Dave's face. His frown dropped into something softer as his eyes landed on a ring of deep purple surrounding the other boy's left eye. The edges had given way to a sickly yellow, telling Karkat that this had happened several days ago.

"What happened to you?" He asked softly, the anger having evaporated from his voice.

Dave opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by a knock at the door. Karkat didn't miss the fear that widened the taller boy's eyes as he looked toward it, seemingly frozen to the bed. The grumpy teen threw him a puzzled look, getting up and going to the door.

"Don't open it!" Dave hissed, Karkat's movement snapping him out of his trance as he scrambled toward him. The warning came too late, however. Karkat opened the door, digging around in his pocket for his wallet. He looked back at dave as he did so, not understanding what he was so anxious about. But the boy had already sunk back into the sheets as his eyes landed on the pizza man, letting Karkat pay before he made room on the bed for him.

"So what happened to you?" Karkat asked again, not one to be distracted. He wasn't trying to be rude. The boy was a fiercely loyal friend. He may have just met Dave, but the other albino was already shaping up to be the only friend Karkat would make during the nightmare that was his summer vacation, and he would cut off his own pinky fingers before he ever let something mess that up. Though he was grumpy and standoffish, Karkat thrived off of positive reinforcement. He may have needed time to himself every once in awhile, but more often than not, what he really needed was human interaction. If there was anything he could do to help Dave, he would. No question.

"Would you believe 'I fell down the stairs'?" The taller boy asked softly, raising his eyebrows pleadingly. Karkat snorted, rolling his eyes.

"You look like I did every day after school Sophomore year. Of course I don't believe that."

"Well..." Karkat was confused. Why did he look so nervous? "Well, to start, I don't work here. I live here." He plowed through his words, not bothering to stop as Karkat raised his eyebrows. "My brothers own this place. One of them manages it, the other is some big whoop in Hollywood. I work for my keep part time during the school year and full time in the summer. That's when we're at our busiest." The boy finished his rushed answer, unable to meet Karkat's eyes.

"Okay." The albino answered, vaguely confused. "What does that have to do with your eye?" Dave looked up at that, seemingly surprised by something Karkat had said. He shook it off, though, shrugging before speaking.

"Bro. I was slacking off the night I came out to talk to you, and it pissed him off." He gave another sad lift of his shoulders, reaching for a slice of pizza. Karkat frowned at that, knowing that Dave wasn't disclosing every detail he could, but the grumpy boy let it go. He'd already made the other boy open up that much, he wouldn't force him to disclose any more information if he didn't want to. However, there was one burning question that had been bothering Karkat for the past four days.

"Why have you been avoiding me?" The shorter boy blurted out, his anger back in full swing to hide the hurt he felt. The question made dave choke on his pizza, the boy frowning deeply as he swallowed.

"That's what you think? That I've been avoiding you?" The boy asked, his voice a bit hoarse.

"Uh, duh. I've gone out every night to wait for you so we could hang out again. I didn't want to show up at your room like some weirdo, but you never came back." Karkat's rhetoric lost some heat as he went on, growing embarrassed at how pathetic he sounded. "Since you never came, I figured you just didn't like me all that much after all." He finally mumbled, more embarrassed than ever.

"Y'know, I thought you were smart. But you're kinda stupid." Dave said after a moment, laughing.

"Yeah? And why's that?" Karkat practically snarled, his fire back instantly.

" _I've_ been looking for _you_ ," he said, rolling his eyes, "but I haven't been able to go out at night. Bro's been watching me like some freaky hawk, and he always comes up with some lame chore for me to do when he catches me sneaking down. That's why I was taking out the trash just now."

"Wait, your brother lives in this room room too?" Karkat asked, wrinkling his nose as he looked around. There was only one bed. That was sort of weird.

"No, no, no." Dave amended quickly, laughing as he shook his head. "One perk of your brother owning a hotel, you get your own room to yourself. He just has the key to it." He raised an eyebrow at the funny look Karkat gave him, tilting his head. "What?"

"Nothing, it's just...it's nice to know that you weren't avoiding me because you wanted to." He said quietly, almost afraid of the words and the vulnerability they gave him. "It's just...really hard for me to make friends. And after I met you, the only thing I could think was 'He's perfect.' So I'm just glad to know that you don't...not like me...you know?" He grumbled, hating the how red he knew his cheeks where.

"Yeah...I know." Dave answered just as quietly, a bit embarrassed himself. Karkat looked up at the confirmation, a surprised grin stretching across his face. He didn't know what it was about this Dave kid, but whatever it was...it made Karkat smile.

"Good."

Another long silence stretched between the boys, this one just as awkward as the first one. However, where the first was filled with angry tension, this one had a sense of camaraderie to it. In the same way a thunderstorm chased away humidity, their conversation had lifted the angry, uneasy feeling from the both of them. The pizza box sat empty between the two, having been finished off sometime ago. Karkat didn't move though, not really wanting to go back to his room. If Dave were honest, he didn't really want Karkat to leave either. But as the quiet went on, the taller boy surprised them both by breaking it first.

"Wanna play Mortal Kombat?"

"Yeah, I do."


	4. Chapter 4

Karkat had never planned to be running the receptionist's desk of a three star motel in the middle of one of the busiest weekends known to man, but then again, things never really went as planned for the grumpy albino. The small lobby's AC was on in full, but even the arctic blasts from the break room couldn't combat the sticky heat that rolled in every time an obnoxious customer opened the door with a complaint or a request. Karkat couldn't really keep down a job back at home, having never been known to provide "service with a smile", and honestly shouldn't have been manning the desk then either. He was blunt with the customers. Usually borderlining rude when they were less than pleasant, and he hadn't seen Dave since the jerkface had vanished around twenty minutes ago. The blond huffed his bangs from his eyes, his black jeans sticking uncomfortably to his legs as an angry middle aged man left the lobby after being the recipient of Karkat's most recent sass. The albino was steadily growing more annoyed that Dave hadn't returned when he heard the bell ring as the door opened _yet again_. He turned his head, more than prepared to chew out whoever dared bother him when his eyes landed on the source of his annoyance.

"Nice of you to finally join me, jerk," Karkat greeted him roughly, mostly irritable due to the heat.

He scowled when he received no answer, knowing Dave was rolling his stupid, pretty eyes behind his equally stupid shades. He didn't think it was very fair of Dave to be coming down to help at 11 AM when he'd already been down there for the past two hours. It wasn't like Karkat worked there or anything, he just felt bad that Dave didn't have any help and wanted to make himself useful. Karkat just huffed in response, retreating to the room in the back. The "break room", if it could really be called that, was honestly just a room either Dave or Bro would disappear to if they were tired of dealing with a customer, and at the moment, Karkat was tired of dealing with the situation. He took in the ragged couch in the corner, moving to perch on its arm before staring around distastefully at the same ugly paint that covered the walls of his room. He wasn't upset when Dave followed him, the teen taking a seat on the other side of the scratchy plaid couch. Karkat couldn't help it as he pouted from his seat. He was hot, he was bored, and there was nothing he could do about it. He hadn't realized Dave was staring at him until he heard a snort from the couch cushion. Turning his eyes to him, he scowled as he raised an eyebrow.

"Can I help you?" The albino asked dryly, not very amused by the situation.

"Don't look so sad, you're almost making me pity you." Dave shot back, snorting again.

Karkat chose to ignore him, worrying at his bottom lip as he rested his chin on his hand.

"What's wrong?" Dave prodded again after a moment, the teasing gone to be replaced with mild concern.

"I'm _bored_ ," Karkat whined out, rolling his eyes, "there's nothing to do on this stupid island."

"Well, clearly you haven't been to the best part of it yet," the other boy answered, standing immediately to and grabbing his keys.

"Where are you going?" Karkat demanded more than he asked, turning his pout toward him.

"I'm just gonna have to show it to you."

"Show what to me?"

Karkat wrinkled his nose, refusing to get up even when Dave extended his hand to him. Rolling his eyes and knocking the grumpy boy off the arm of the couch, Dave grabbed him before Karkat could hit the floor.

"C'mon, don't be a loser." Dave smirked, setting Karkat on his feet before tugging him out of the room.

He had made it a habit to take Karkat's hand whenever he led him somewhere, something that he himself hadn't noticed, but that Karkat couldn't help but be aware of. He was always aware of everything Dave did. Tossing the thought off, the grumpy boy gave a huff before following him out.

"Who's going to watch the lobby, Dunderhead?" He asked as Dave pulled him out the door, frowning slightly.

Bro had gone out of town two or three days before, leaving Dave to manage the hotel alone. When Karkat had recoiled in surprise, his friend revealed that Bro did this frequently, leaving Dave with a few hundred dollars and the capability to figure things out for himself. Karkat had been watching the lobby himself a few minutes before in order to help the other boy out, but with both of them gone, he didn't know who would.

"Karkitty, there's this magical thing called a lunch break sign," Dave answered obnoxiously, intentionally teasing him as he put the sign up on the desk with what time they'd return.

Karkat both hated and adored that nickname. He loathed it for the teasing it entailed, but loved it due to the fact that, well, it was kind of cute. He rolled his eyes at the taller boy, however, knowing it would do no good for Dave to know how the nickname affected him. He mumbled something along the lines of "shut up" before allowing himself to be led out of the lobby and to Dave's 1997 cherry red F-150. The albino pulled himself up into the cab of the truck after a small struggle with the passenger side handle. The button had been jamming for years, but Dave never had the money to get it fixed. Both his truck, and Bro's 1986 orange Cutlass were in pretty good shape for such old cars.

Karkat was sure to pull his seat belt over his chest and click it into place, taking the aux from Dave's cassette converter and plugging it into his phone. Coincidentally, their music tastes were pretty similar, so there wasn't a fight over what Karkat played as long as it wasn't Taylor Swift. For some reason, Dave _really_ didn't like listening to T-Swift. Karkat opened YouTube, setting a playlist he'd lovingly titled "Space Case" to play before he relaxed into the seat, letting his phone rest between the two of them.

"So, you gonna tell me where we're going?" he asked bluntly, a nervous frown pulling at his lips.

"Nah," Dave answered unapologetically, keeping his eyes on the road, "It's a surprise. You'll see when we get there."

Karkat hated surprises, but he didn't let the other boy in on that fact. He didn't want to bum Dave out when he was so obviously excited about showing Karkat this…whatever it was. So Karkat sucked it up, sitting back in his seat and going along for the ride. He was quiet for once, listening to his music as he stared out the window. People weren't joking when they called Florida flat. He hadn't seen anything bigger than a small hill, nothing compared to the towering falls and rolling hills that were abundant in his home town. In fact, if it hadn't been for all the shops and buildings, Karkat would be sure he could see from one side of the island to the other. He took in the foliage quietly, finding it all so different from his usual temperate, deciduous forest climate. Karkat enjoyed the palms and scraggly evergreens, however, finding infinite interest in the idea that there could be so many different forms of plant life littered all around the world. He was so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he hadn't realized where Dave had stopped until the albino had already paid. He scoffed without meaning to, too shocked to keep his manners in check.

"You brought me to a _car wash_?" He asked incredulously, looking toward him, "how could this _car wash_ be the best part of the entire island?" Dave rolled his eyes, but shook his head playfully.

"Just give it a chance. You'll see," he answered, the vagueness of it all irritating Karkat to no end.

"You can't ever give me a straight answer, can you? I think it would honestly kill you."

"Just shut up, and relax," Dave answered him after a moment pulling forward into the area.

The two sat in silence as the hose came through first, shooting such high pressured water that Karkat was sure it would rip his skin off if he were to stand beneath it. He was quiet for a long time, trying to figure out what it was about this place that Dave was so obsessed with when the soap began to cover the car. Karkat understood immediately as he watched the seven colored foam on the windshield. It was absolutely beautiful, the way the colors moved together. It was almost like they were alive. The albino couldn't tear his eyes away even when Dave finally spoke to him again, suddenly feeling very safe.

"Now do you get it?" Dave asked after a second, his voice almost too quiet to hear.

"Yeah, I think I do," Karkat answered softly, too enthralled with the moving colors to really pay attention.

They sat like that until the car was rinsed, going through the drying station before Dave pulled out onto the road to head back to the hotel. They stopped for lunch on the way, Karkat charging both meals to the card his father had given to him at the beginning of the summer. He had been quiet for an alarmingly long time, embarrassed by the question he was about to ask.

"Hey, Dave?" He finally prodded, knowing it would bother him until he got it over with.

"Yeah, Karcrab?" The other boy asked, tilting his head.

"Do you...think we could go back? Next week or something?" The boy managed to get out.

"Of course we can. I already told you, it's the best place on the island," Dave answered with a smirk.

He'd already intended on taking him back more than one time. After seeing the look in his eyes, Dave would have been crazy not to.

Karkat gave a sincere smile, unsure of what the feeling making his chest tight was. Whatever it may be, he found that he didn't mind it very much at all.


End file.
